Character
me, sometime literally last decade: yeah I don't imagine ever cosplaying a troll ever again
me, in the big 2026:
Yeah, okay. Back in August 2025, the Homestuck pilot was announced, which promptly turned my brain into a block of swiss cheese. As of writing this, I have thought more about Homestuck in the last few months than I have in the last few years combined. I'm celebrating what's good about it and mourning what it never became. When Homestuck's good, it's actually brilliant. Don't get it twisted, I still hate many a direction the story/characterizations took, and typically I don't touch the dubiously canon stuff (imagine me shaking my head in disapproval), but. I don't know. Here I am, reinvested. Almost out of nowhere (almost). I should create a Homestuck retrospective for my website. If/when that happens, I'll add a link to it. However, if you were or are into Homestuck then you probably get my thought process, which looks a lot like this:
It's enough to drive a girl crazy!!!
Fork found in kitchen if you know anything about me, but Karkat is, of course, one of my favorite characters in Homestuck. YES I mourn the dead end that his character arc became in Act 6 (though you can say that about so many others in Homestuck lmao), YES I love him anyway. The way his anxiety manifests as anger and agitation, the way he's so desperate to control everything that he ends up self-sabotaging himself, how much he CARES, despite it all... He's Just Great. If I gushed about the inherent lack of agency in his life and how desperately he claws at any chance to have even a scrap I'll be here for hours, so let's talk about the costume instead!
Fun fact: my second ever cosplay was a genderbent Karkat. This go-around I went with his canon design, and I'm so happy I did! It was an awesome way of remaking a costume of yore but in a way that feels fresh. My 18-year-old self, who took forever to finish her fem!Kat cosplay, would be proud that this was made in a week. And maybe annoyed, too. Probably annoyed. Art imitates life, etc etc.
Even with the makeup, Karkat continues the trend of super comfy cosplay! Loose clothes and flat shoes, it doesn't get better than that. Simple as his outfit is, I am utterly and absolutely in love with how everything turned out! I actually felt like Karkat, as goofy as that sounds LOL questionable character to feel this way about, but hey!
Costume
Karkat's Just Some Guy, so his clothes are that of... Just Some Guy's... His outfit DID teach me that it's hella hard finding a non-ribbed turtleneck in-store, so that I bought online. Like of all things, right? But I guess they're not in style at the moment. Everything else I thrifted. I thought that finding a pair of men's jeans that fit me would be the hardest part, but I got super lucky!
I'm really hyped about how the symbol turned out! It was my first time trying out heat-transfer vinyl. I don't own a craft cutter machine like a Cricut, but his symbol is simple enough to not necessitate one. First, I found and increased the size of an image it, which was then traced onto a piece of freezer paper. And after that, I cut out the vinyl with an exacto knife and ironed it to the turtleneck. Super duper easy!! It took an hour in total to do and WOW the results are clean. A far cry from paint, which is what I used last time. It looks like the symbol was always there, like I had purchased a shirt with it already on Definitely will utilize this technique for other projects!! I love learning different crafting skills, so I'm happy that even with a costume as simple as Karkat's, I have a new tool beneath my belt.
Next up were the horns. This is my third time making a set of these suckers, and they're my favorite yet! To craft these I followed the grand tradition of generations of Homestuck cosplayers: a tinfoil base wrapped around floral wire, then covered and sculpted with paperclay... clay. Paperclay is a delight to work with; while I'm not great at sculpting, this stuff is so pliable that it's easy to get the results you want. After they dried, I sanded them down until they're silky smooth--the trick to getting them to look good imo! After sanding them, I primed the horns with gesso, gave them a gradient paint job (lots of patience required), and then sealed
everything with a couple coats of Modge Podge!
Initially, I assumed the horns would be lightweight enough that I could use use barrettes to wear them. Mistake on my end--one that was discovered day of the con lmao. In the past, I had glued super magnets to the base of my horns which were then worn with a headband beneath the wig. Needless to say I should have just done that again, because the barrettes didn't wanna anchor. Fortunately, my friend had extra supplies from her own horns, and we pulled through with hot glue and a dream, but MAN! Never again! Go with your gut, always!!
Props
WIP!
Wig and Makeup
Styling my wig took less than an hour. I already had a solid base in my stash, so I took a razor to it and thinned out the bangs and fluffed it up. Wig glue is my new best friend forever.
As for the makeup... we have LONG graduated from Snazaroo babey, we're onto bigger and brighter things: Mehron! Also water-based, the application is smooth as silk and long-lasting. Excellent opacity as well, it doesn't take long to build up the coverage without looking streaky. Body paint can be a pain in the butt in the best of times, so really, this is the best you can ask for. Once the base foundation was applied, I moved onto contouring and highlighting the rest of my face so it wouldn't look completely flat. With this cosplay, I also wore pointed ear prosthetics, painted with the same gray makeup. Something I love seeing with other Homestuck troll cosplayers is how they bring in different blood colors through the use of blush. In my practice runs however, I couldn't get it to look right! Any red makeup turned fuschia fast. It might be due to the cool tones of my face paint, but who knows! Just something to try again in the future.
References
Glamour Shots
WIP!